Oral Answers to Questions

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Monday 9th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Damian Hinds]

My hon. Friend is entirely correct about the OBR’s projection at that time, but he will have noticed that that came in the context of considerably larger projected employment growth.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

10. What steps the Government are taking to ensure that people with mental health conditions are supported into work.

[The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Penny Mordaunt)]

We are investing significant resources, including increasing coverage of Talking Therapy services by 600,000 people a year by 2020. Mental health is a key feature of our Green Paper “Improving Lives”, on which we are currently consulting. I thank Members on both sides of the House who came to our drop-in event on the Green Paper and who are helping with the consultation.

[Huw Merriman]

I welcome the Minister’s response and the Prime Minister’s intervention today on mental health. Does the Minister agree that in order better to support those with mental health conditions into the workplace, we need to transform the way we deliver mental health services for young people before they reach working age?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I agree with my hon. Friend absolutely. When I ask healthcare professionals who work in Department for Work and Pensions services what the single most significant transformative healthcare intervention would be, they say mental health support services for young people. The Prime Minister’s announcement on that was very welcome.